Charlie Smith
THE news that a British teen’s death in Mallorca ‘could have been prevented’ is both shocking and sad.
Thomas Channon, 18, died after he fell from a balcony in July 2018, but the revelation that it was a preventable tragedy has only just emerged.
Although the student had been out drinking, Coroner Graeme Hughes said: “I do not find Tom was ridiculously drunk or out of control.”
Speaking at the inquest into the lad’s death, the coroner found that ‘simple steps’ would have saved Channon.
One of his findings was that a temporary fence could have saved Channon’s life.
For one person to plunge to their death like this, is heartbreaking.
But Channon was in fact the third fatality in similar circumstances at the same Magaluf resort in the space of 12 months.
His mother, Ceri, was courageous as she said there had now been ‘recognition’ of the preventable tragedy.
However, Brits dying from balcony falls is a pattern, and we need to move beyond mere ‘recognition’, and act.
